Abstract
Many people faced with demands for eldercare have to decide how to combine caregiving with paid work. Theoretical literature on employment and caregiving suggests that individuals approach this decision as a tradeoff; increases in one of these activities are theorized to lead to reductions in the other. Most scholars make the tradeoff argument in a unidirectional way. Some studies discuss the effects of caregiving on employment, arguing that caregivers are often forced to curtail their paid work. Other scholars make arguments regarding the effects of paid work on caregiving, stating that those who work longer hours and earn more money are less likely to provide care to their parents– they leave this task to their siblings, spouses, or paid caregivers. Theoretical literature also suggests that the tradeoff between paid work and caregiving may be particularly pronounced for women. Little research, however, empirically tests these assumptions by examining this link explicitly as a bidirectional relationship. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) collected between 1992 and 2014 to examine the reciprocal relationship between employment hours and caregiving to parents and parents-in-law. Cross-lagged longitudinal structural equation models show that for these older adults, the tradeoff model holds for men (with employment hours exhibiting causal predominance), but for women, there appear to be no causal links between employment hours and hours of eldercare; it is possible that the tradeoff processes that take place when women are younger determine the balance of paid work and caregiving in later life.